McClure Naismith

With offices in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh and an annual turnover of £14 million, law firm McClure Naismith was rated 126th in The Lawyer UK 200 in 2007. In September 2007, its failure to grow at the rate predicted by outgoing senior partner Kenneth Chrystie was bemoaned by one of the partners left behind. But, he nedden't have worried as the firm marked the final quarter of 2007 by acting on a record £1 billion of UK and international deals across McClure’s corporate, banking, property and project finance teams. This included a £155m financing deal relating to Perthshire Schools PPP and Inverclyde District Council, advising on the stock transfer of around 7,000 houses to the newly formed Housing Association, River Clyde Homes. Internationally, the firm acted for Qucom Haps Holdings Limited in the acquisition of Moravan Aeroplanes and an aircraft construction facility in the Czech Republic.

The core of the business is real estate, litigation and banking, with banking practice particularly assisted by McClure’s London office, which features former Bank of Scotland senior manager John Blackwood. Other banking clients include the London branch of (German) Helaba Bank, ABN Amro Bank NV and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. On the litigation side, the firm successfully advised the landlord of a Dundee shopping centre against the Co-operative Wholesale Society and Kwik Save.